Explore Life!

I have my Visible Images stamps and stencils stacked up, all facing me in one of those little trolleys that I constantly wheel out the way only to pull it back 30 seconds later. The Renaissance stencil ended up at the front of the stencils after I was flicking through them the other day and I realised I don’t use it nearly enough and it makes such a fabulous image when used with modelling paste.

The first thing I did for this make was to create a grungy background using Distress Oxide ink pads. I began by squishing Ground Espresso onto a glass mat and spritzed it lightly with water (I also spritzed the watercolour card I was using). By adding other brown tones you can make fabulous tonal backgrounds and I love this method. I also added Speckled Egg and the new Kitsch Flamingo as these colours often come through when the ink oxidises and both go beautifully with the browns. I’ve then used the Distress Oxide sprays to flick some colour across the background (again, I’ve used Speckled Egg, Ground Espresso and some Picket Fence too).

With the background dry, I added some Grunge paste through the stencil and, whilst the paste was still damp, sprinkled on Wow Embossing powders and left to dry. I used Seth Apter’s powders he created for Wow as they have a great textural quality to them and I am slightly addicted to them! Once the paste is dry, you can go ahead and melt the powder and I love watching it slightly bubble and spit while it melts.

I seem to use the Strobe stencil on nearly all of my makes but I can’t seem to not use it! It’s so perfect for everything and again, here it is once again. If you haven’t come across the cute little Ice pouches from Aladine and Seth Apter do check them out. They are translucent mediums and I love them for this quality. You can stamp/draw underneath and even with a fairly heavy covering of the Ice, you can still see through it.

The main focal image comes courtesy of Ahead of Our Time and I’ve heat embossed him using Oiled Slate form Wow Embossing. This is a fabulous mottled colour, slightly shimmery but not glittery. Around the edges I’ve painted Speckled Egg and Tumbled Glass and then added some Vintage Photo to the edges while dotting the steampunk eye with some Spiced Marmalade before using Glossy Accents in a few places.

The arrows around the edges are from the Destination Unknown set and I love these, although I lost the little arrows immediately after using it! Gutted! Anyway, they’ve been stamped using Onyx Black from Versafine and then heat embossed using a clear powder.

The sentiment has also been clear embossed and ‘escape’ comes from the same Destination Unknown set while ‘life’ is from The Worlds Needs Art stamp set.

Here are the Visible Image products I used for this make…

Renaissance

Strobes

Destination Unknown

The World Needs Art

Don’t forget to share any Visible Image makes you create on their group page over on Facebook. There is always lots of inspiration to be found. Likewise on Instagram. If you follow the hashtag #visibleimage you’ll get makes from all over the world on your feed, which is awesome!

I’ll see you all again soon, H xx